Modern spine surgery often involves the use of spinal implants to correct or treat various spine disorders and/or to support the spine. Spinal implants may help, for example, to stabilize the spine, correct deformities of the spine, facilitate fusion, or treat spinal fractures. Typical spinal implants may include rigid (i.e., via a fusion procedure) support for the affected regions of the spine. Such spinal implants limit movement in the affected regions (e.g., in a fused region) in virtually all directions.
Prior spinal implants typically use elongated members to support parts of the spine. The rods usually do not provide much protection against torsional forces or movement. Efforts have been made to address that concern. One solution is to connect elongated members using cross-link devices. Conventional cross-link devices, however, have many weaknesses. For example, conventional cross-link devices are inflexible and provide a very limited range of motion. Thus, a surgeon using conventional cross-link devices cannot readily adjust the spinal implant according to each patient's needs and anatomy. Furthermore, because a surgeon has to adjust a relatively large number of fasteners during the surgery, the installation of a conventional cross-link device can be time consuming, which is highly undesirable.